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March 06, 2009

Shhhhh … is that silence you hear?

There’s much I don’t know about my ancestors but I’m certain about one thing: The sounds of their lives were much different than mine.

Many of them grew up either on farms or in small towns. I imagine their days were dominated by the sounds of chirping birds and domesticated animals and the rustling of leaves by the wind, rain and whatever else Mother Nature saw fit to throw their way. The sounds of commerce likely included grunts of hard-working men wielding the simple tools of the day or transactions conducted in the favored manner of the day – face-to-face.

At night, once the labors of the day were finished, I can imagine my ancestors settling into a silence unknown to most of us today. Surely they talked, socialized with friends and neighbors, played games, read and made music, but my great-great-grandfather never had a telephone, motor vehicle, electricity or indoor plumbing. Think of how each of these contributes to the background noise of our lives today.

Modern life is an enemy of silence. Most of us can’t stand to be away from noise. We take our cell phones, laptops and iPods with us everywhere, giving us the capability of warding off silence with a few finger strokes. Not that it’s really necessary, given the steady aural stream that engulfs us.

Don’t believe it? Try this test. Sit in a “quiet place” for 15 minutes, filtering out the sounds around you and concentrating on being still. It’s not easy. Your quiet place may not be as quiet as you thought. You’ll probably get restless before the 15 minutes are up.

You can decide for yourself whether silence is a virtue. After all, it was our ancestors that built our noisy world of today, generation-by-generation.

Larry Lehmer is a personal historian who helps people preserve their family histories. To learn more, visit his web site, sent him an e-mail or follow him on Twitter.

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Comments

Silence is certainly a virtue and I LOVE it! I work all day in an office alone and have no radio playing. I used to have a cabin in the mountains and found that it took a couple of days for my ears to adjust to the dead silence. They were so used to noise--the silence was almost deafening at first. But I enjoyed your post--silence is golden! The world has gotten way too noisy!!!